Month: October 2016

Today I decided to give you guys a little run down of my morning routine and share with you some of the products and procedures that help me feel ready to tackle the day ahead. Most days I wake up to a grumbling tum so naturally food is the first thing on the agenda, but once I have that big ol’ morning smoothie in my belly it’s then time to hit up the bathroom to sort out my morning face.

I tend to wake up to a face that more so resembles a balloon than my own and some days are worse than others. I get really puffy in the eye area and some days it’s so bad that it causes my eyes to water too (such a fun way to start the day #NOT!). Lately I’ve been travelling a lot, 9 long haul flights in roughly a month for that matter, and so because of all these changes in my body clock I have absolutely no idea what day or what time it is. Just the other day I had a good 12 hour stint of sleep! This = SUPER PUFFY FACED RACHELLE. A little trick I’d learnt in the past to rectify this situation is to chuck a couple of spoons in the freezer, leave them for about 15 minutes and then gently place them over said puffy areas. You can then hold them there as long as you like and even repeat the process if need be. It helps to get the lymphatic system going and drain away all that excess fluid. It also tightens the skin around the eye area, constricting the blood vessels and therefore reducing the puffiness. I love this for dealing with jet lag face and it’s also great for those comp mornings when you had accidentally overdosed on your carb loading (usually pizza and pasta!) the night before #carbface.

Most days, when my face isn’t too puffy I just get straight into my morning cleanse, tone and moisturise ritual. I start with using Dr Hauschka’s cleansing cream. This stuff is a type of gritty cleanser that needs to be mixed with a bit of water to form a paste. It goes super far so they recommend you only use about an inch worth which means great lasting power! Being Dr Hauschka the products are all natural plant extracts and my sensitive skin loves them! The paste gently cleanses and exfoliates the skin and because they recommend the product to be “rolled” onto the skin not at all abrasive. Once I’ve repeated that rolling action a few times I remove the cleanser with a warm muslin cloth.

I then use the Dr Hauschka Facial Toner and lightly spray the mist onto my face. This toner contains of Anthyllis and Witch Hazel which helps to optimise the balance of oil on the skin and leaves me feeling super refreshed! While my skin is still slightly wet from the toner I then go on to apply my moisturiser. I’ve mentioned this product before but I’m going to mention it again just incase any of you missed it 😉 I’m talking about the dreamy Rose Day cream by Dr Hauschka for normal, dry, sensitive or mature skin. It’s recommended for us gals who are prone to a bit of redness or irritation and it also works wonders on those premature wrinkles. Each tube contains 30 organic roses and so obviously it smells TO DIE FOR! It feels super luxe on the skin with its richness but it’s not heavy and thick at all once it hits the skin. I love this product!!

If my eyes are looking a little worse for wear and are on the tired side I then go to my trusty little tube of “luxury eye serum” which I purchased at The Face Shop. They had a few products in store that were similar to this one but basically they are a Korean brand of products and this one takes care of the dark circles under your eyes and also help to reduce those infamous under eye bags. I just pop a small amount onto my ring fingers and then smooth under my eyes. Catchya dark circles!

And that’s it! I don’t think this routine is too crazy as it only takes me around 5-10 minutes every morning. But what I do know is that it completely wakes up my face transforming me from frightening half asleep zombie to surprisingly acceptable! I absolutely adore the Dr Hauschka products (as I’ve mentioned before) as they are so rich and luxurious but also simple and easy to use. Who can really be bothered with a 7 step morning ritual anyways!? So I hope you enjoyed this and if you are interested in trying any of the Dr Hauschka range then you can grab them online here or shop the brand at your local David Jones store 🙂

I LOVE PERFUME. It’s actually one of my guilty pleasures in life; buying perfume. I guess I found my ‘nose’ for it way back when I was a young teen still living at home. My dad worked away overseas and would spend a month away and a month at home and would often bring me back presents of pretty glass bottles filled with amazing scents. My dad luckily has pretty good taste when it comes to perfume so they were always high quality and so I thought myself extremely lucky to be rocking out the scents of Gucci, Kenzo and Prada at such a young age. Wearing the perfumes used to remind me of dad while he was away and this is still something I love so much about perfume! It’s so cool that one whiff of something can trigger so many memories, emotions and feelings!

Nowadays, I travel overseas a lot myself, so I like to try ($$$ permitting of course) and buy myself a new perfume either on my way to a destination or on the way home (TREAT YO’SELF right!!?). Buying duty-free knocks the price down so much and I love the whole experience of wandering around sniffing out all the options (literally), smelling some coffee beans and the continuing to sniff some more! I have, in my time had a few perfumes I have regretted buying but I also have found some absolute treasures that have become repeat buys. So I thought I’d share some of those good ones with you!

Day-time: (this is listed as affordable to more pricey by the way 🙂 just for your viewing pleasure!)

BRITNEY SPEARS – FANTASY:

I have to admit I do cringe every time I have to say the name of this perfume out loud. Which surprisingly is more than you probably imagine! I have worn this perfume on and off for the past 10 years and it always receives compliments… compliments followed by the question of what is it? Followed by my cringe. But sometimes you just gotta say hey, this perfume is $20, made by Britney Spears for young teeny-boppers but daaaamn it smells good! It’s super sweet and caramel-ly so for those of you gals out there that love sweet, vanilla, lolly type scents, this one’s for you! It has notes of kiwi, chocolate, musk and cupcakes (wtf, I know!) and really is a sweet summery smell. Another thing that I can’t get over about this perfume is its longevity on the skin. Most cheaper, celebrity perfumes you spray on and can’t even smell them 10 minutes later but this bad boy stays on for hours, years even! I can spray it on in the morning, have a shower that night and still smell it the next day! Cheap and long-lasting.. #DOUBLEBANGER!

CHLOE EU DE PARFUM:

This is a pretty iconic perfume in its own right and I’m pretty sure it’s because of its floral-y amazingness. Totally sure. It epitomizes the smell of roses so perfectly and for me that’s why it’s one of my faves. It’s feminine and fresh and doesn’t smell like a Nanna like some floral perfumes do (I’m looking at you Red Door by Elizabeth Arden!!) I like to wear this during the day but there’s absolutely no reason why it couldn’t be a night-time scent as well; it’s elegant but edgy y’see? Along with the significant rose smell it also contains hints of freesia, peony, lily of the valley and amber so for you floral lovers out there.. GO GET IT!

GUERLAIN – INSOLENCE:

Insolence hands down wins the title of my favourite ever perfume up to and including the year of 2016. I call it my powder puff perfume and I’ve been wearing it for about 5 years now. I remember the first time I smelt it.. I was in the U.K getting changed after a dance lesson and a girl in the change room sprayed some and I swear I almost died. It was love at first whiff. I had to ask her what the name of it was and I quickly bought it duty-free on that very flight home! It’s had my heart (and nostrils) ever since! I’ve also tried Guerlain’s other version of it called ‘My Insolence’ which comes in a pink bottle and it’s just as gorgeous just a little more sweet. The smell of Insolence is powdery and soft with floral and sweet notes. It contains violet, raspberry, red berries, musk and sandalwood just to name a few but for me the scent really can’t be summed up in words. Some one needs to create an app where our devices can pump out the smell of something at the tap of a finger. How good would that be right now!! Also for some of those cooking tutorials where you just know the smell of those baking cookies would be off the chain! Anyway, I digress.. go find this perfume, smell it and get back to me. I know the minute my mum smelt it on me she went out the next day and bought a bottle for herself she loved it so much 🙂

I only have a couple of night-time scents but I feel that it makes it a bit more special and maybe gives you more of a personal stamp that people can remember you by. I tend to leave this two to night-time or special occasions as they were both rather pricey and I don’t just want to go through them willy-nilly you know?! But that’s not to say they cant be worn through the day as well 🙂

Night-time:

TOM FORD – VELVET ORCHID:

This one is a bit of a newbie to my perfume corner but it’s one I loved immediately. I wanted to buy another special night-time fragrance to give my other much-loved, yet to be mentioned favourite a break sometimes. So of course I headed to the Tom Ford counter. Tom Ford knows how to rock + roll. I smelt a lot of their fragrances as most of them are neither masculine or feminine and can be worn by whoever (very cool) but this one really stuck with me. It’s a bloody treat. It’s my typical kind of scent; floral, sweet and powdery but with a hint of balsamic which gives it its edge. Kind of like Strawberries and balsamic ice-cream.. sounds wrong but it’s so right!! (For all you vegan folk out there, I tried that ice-cream before I was vegan 😉 it was yummy but the big bloated tummy I got afterwards wasn’t worth it) Velvet Orchid reminds me of dessert and liqueur and has a very luxurious feel about it, perfect for the night! Some notes are myrrh, rum (yes please!), honey, orchid, rose oil, vanilla and lime which all add up to create a very special, dark fragrance.

CHANEL No5 EU DE PARFUM:

Well I don’t think much needs to be said about this one. She is famous enough already and there really isn’t much I could say to add to that! This is the only woody perfume I’ve ever bought as I’m not much into the smell of the woods but I’ve loved no5 for roughly 6 years now. It’s always been my go-to special fragrance and I absolutely always wear it on my birthday (it makes me feel special, ok! he he). It’s one I always try to have a bottle of and that actually comes pretty easy, not because I buy, buy, buy but because it’s so darn strong! You really don’t need that much of it and if you do go too hard it can quickly become overkill, sending anyone in your 10 meter radius to start gasping for air. The longevity of it is awesome, both in the bottle and also on the skin. It lasts so long it’s another one I can smell the next day! Whilst it is woody, there still if a powdery, floral tinge to it and it’s another one of those ones I can’t put my finger on exactly what it smells like. It smells like Chanel no5! Hence why there are so many soap bars and candles and what not out there that are now branded as smelling like “Chanel no5”. The key notes however are ylang-ylang, sandalwood, jasmine, vanilla, rose, patchouli, bergamot and vetiver. Marilyn Monroe loved it for a reason guys!

What are some of your favourite fragrances? Are there any out there you think I might enjoy judging from this list? Please feel free to share in the comments below 🙂

As you may or may not know, these past few weeks I have been in Ye Olde London town preparing for a rather large competition. This is why my blog posts have been a little erratic and random and for that I’m sorry guys! Don’t hate the player, #hatethegame! The other night I was lucky enough to dance at the Royal Albert Hall in London so I thought I would share a little step-by-step low down of how my makeup goes before a big competition. I generally tend to stick to the same idea every time but every now and then I like to mix up the colours to co-ordinate with my dress.. otherwise I’m more of a natural gal. Guess what, this time was no different! I wore a canary yellow dress so I decided to keep the look quite neutral and maybe throw in a bit of purple to bring out the hazel in my eyes and pair it with a banging red lip. I’ve written it out as a type of step-by-step, get ready with me tutorial so that hopefully you can follow along the dot points with me for those times that you are getting ready for a comp! So, let’s get started 🙂

First up it’s time to prime. I already washed and moisturised my face, so I’m just going to smooth Rimmel Fix and Protect makeup primer all over my face.

I blend that out with my beauty blender and then set those ares with Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent.

Next up, time to set my WHOLE face. This part is super important I feel as it will really keep your makeup in place when times get tough out there! I apply MAC Studio Fix in C4 all over my face with a fluffy brush trying to hit the outer perimeters of my face more as I want to keep the parts already set with the Laura Mercer powder lighter. Does that make any sense at all?

I then bronze up my cheekbones with Bahama mama by The Balm. Awesome product btw, I only just purchased it and I’m in love. It’s not orange at all and the packaging is so cute!! This can be purchased in Target stores in Australia but I bought it here in London at Superdrug.

Foundation

Love this Bronzer!

Base done!

Once my face is pretty much done, I then like to start working on my eyes. I have a very old, very awesome eyeshadow palette by Chacott that I won at a competition in Japan (see palette here) that I pretty much use every dang comp. If you can get your hands on ANYTHING by Chacott I highly recommend it. The brand is built for dancers and the quality of their products is off the chain. Anyway, back to the task at hand! Today I’m applying an orange-y brown to my crease and then joining to the outer corner of my eye. BLEND WELL.

Then I like to take a black pencil or eyeliner and carve out a bit of a sideways ‘V’ on the outer corners of my eyes. Don’t worry if this part is rough as it’s just a base!

On top of the liner I then apply a dark purple shade from my Chacott palette over the top with a small angle brush. I then go in with a small fluffy brush and blend it all out til smoooooth.

I keep adding purple shadow and blending until I’m happy with the depth and then finally go in with MAC Carbon (matte black eyeshadow) and really draw in a strong corner with my angle brush and then DONT BLEND!

Once I’ve done enough with the purple shadow I then like to go back in with the brown and make sure the two colours are blended together well and that the brown is still strong.

I then take a small brush and fill my inner corner of my eye and brow line with white eyeshadow bringing it down right into the tear duct.

Under my eye I did white in the inner corner and lined the dark purple quite close to the lash line and then blended out with the brown shadow underneath that.

Brown eye shadow

black eyeliner

Bit of a close up!

Next I fill in my waterline with a white eyeliner, I’m using a MaxFactor Kohl Pencil and I then line my eyes with a strong cat eye flick using a black liquid liner.

I then like to move on to my brows, if you want to know how and what I do with my brows then click here. Today I’m using a mix of MAC Cranberry and a dark brown eyeshadow from the Dior 609 Earth Reflection palette.

Now its time for blush and I’m going for my all time favourite comp colour Dollymix by MAC.

For highlighter I’m using Mary-Lou manizer by The Balm and I’m applying on my cheek bones, down the centre of my shnoz and on my cupid’s bow.

MAC Dollymix on ze cheeks!

Highlighter of my dreams!

Falsies time! I’m using an asian brand of falsies today by the brand Dolly Wink and they are the style sweet girly.. too cute!

Once the lashes are secure I lather both my real and false lashes with a couple of coats of mascara to blend them together and hold them to one another. Today I’m using Maybelline The Falsies but I like all Maybelline mascara’s actually.

Last part is the lips and today I’m wearing a liquid lipstick by The Balm called Devoted. This lipstick drys matte and goes nowhere! Perfect for comps! On top of that I then put on some glittery as hell lip gloss by MIKI that I have no idea where I purchased from.

Once finished the perfectionist in me checks my eyes and maybe touches up the liquid liner or fixes up any conundrums with the blending and then BOOM! It’s setting spray time! I give a couple of sprays of Maybelline super stay 24hr Fixative spray and then Bob’s my uncle!

Now its time for the real fun to begin! I’m so sorry I’ve only posted one blog post this week but girl has been biz-zay! Im heading back to Oz this weekend so hopefully things will be back to normal ASAP. Hope you enjoyed this and if you have any questions or queries don’t be shy and leave me some comments 🙂

Big call in the old title there. All-time favourite. This product must really be something you are probably thinking.. and let me tell you oh yes it is! As you know if you’ve read my blogs I really am one for changing it up with my beauty game but when a product is this good, it stays. I’ve been using the Eve Lom cleanser for the best part of 6 years now and it is still something I love so damn much! So I decided after purchasing a new tub of the stuff the other day whilst here in the UK, what better time than now to share that love 🙂

If you haven’t heard of Eve Lom before then let me share a little bit about it for you. It’s a UK-based brand but is stocked in a couple of places in Oz now, the main place I know of is in Mecca stores (you know like Cosmetica, Maxima and any other -a’s I can’t think of). The cleanser was the first product that Eve Lom ever launched and to this day is still the best seller. Vogue even proclaimed it as “probably the best cleanser in the world” with “probably” meaning definitely I’m sure. I haven’t seen anything else on the market that comes close to it in the way that it’s a cleanser, toner and moisturiser all-in-one. I’ve tried a few other balmy type cleansers with a similar style to this one but most of them leave an oily residue on my face and some have even caused breakouts.. not what you want. It is slightly pricey though, with the 100ml retailing for around A$105 and the 200ml for A$163. But when you take in to account the amount you are using (a thumb size) and the fact that it’s your cleanser, toner and moisturiser in one it really isn’t that bad (in my opinion!). The 200ml tub usually lasts me around 6 months and that’s when I used to use it every night.. more about that later.

Describing the product is a bit of a tricky one. Picture vaseline but thicker with a very fine grit through it. Very descriptive I know but I guess you just have to experience it to understand. It contains 4 signature plant oils that give it its distinct fragrance which is slightly medicinal, but I love it (my mum hated it though.. you win some, you lose some!). It removes all traces of make-up (even waterproof mascara!!), cleanses and exfoliates, decongests the face through the massage ritual suggested and regulates your natural oil balance. All good things in my books when it comes to my skin!

Another great thing about the product is how quick and easy it is. I simply scoop out a small glob of it, rub between my fingers to warm it up slightly and then massage directly onto my made-up face. Don’t worry about taking your make-up off before hand as this product is meant to do that for you! All-in-one remember!? Once I’ve really un-settled all that make up, I take the muslin cloth (provided) and soak in some warm water, wring out the excess water, press onto my face for roughly 5 seconds and gently swipe away the day! I repeat this process 3 times and then do one more after running the muslin cloth under cold water to close up all my pores. This is amazing for those nights when I come home after a day in the studio and just want to get my face off quickly so that I can watch a couple of episodes of Suits (p.s Harvey Specter… marry me?) and eat my dinner. Other times, when I do have a bit of motivation left in me I quite enjoy the process of taking my makeup off, cleansing, toning and moisturising separately so I like to mix it up using the cleanser maybe 2-3 times a week.

For those days that you have a little more time on your hands, Eve Lom suggest a 7 step facial massage technique that should be paired with the cleanser. They recommend it to be done once or twice a week as it is great for reducing any puffiness and really giving the skin a deep cleanse. I am a little bit forgetful and don’t remember to do this that often but I do sometimes like to do it whilst sat in front of the TV as I find it’s super relaxing. For those of you interested I’ll post a little YouTube video of one of my favourite beauty YouTubers Lisa Eldridge and you can follow along with her as she demonstrates some of her facial massage techniques. She recommends a few different products that can be used for this tutorial but I like to do it with Eve Lom of course!

Obviously I can’t say that this product will work for you but all I can say is that it works a treat for my normal/dry/slightly sensitive skin! If you are interested maybe try some of their sample sizes and give it a go, because who knows it could become your fave too! What are some cleansers or balms that you have loved or loathed? Leave me some comments below 🙂

This Sunday Funday post is a travel-ly based one as I’m currently in the UK! It’s Autumn here so I am uber jealous of all the warm weather I’m starting to see back in Oz, but alas I guess it gives me something to look forward to when I go home in a couple of weeks. It’s not often that Steve and I get a Sunday (or any day for that matter) off while we are in London so we thought rather than bimbling around the city like idiots we would make the most of the opportunity and go do something touristy. Stonehenge it was!

Whilst the thought of going to see one of the 7 wonders of the world did sound interesting to me, it wasn’t something I thought I would reeeeeally enjoy. But, I was wrong! I had a ripper of a day and I would highly recommend the trip to anyone to go and see it. I did envision a completely different set-up before getting there though and was surprised to see a huge car park and visitor centre and.. no stones. I literally thought we would drive right up to it, check out the rocks, say hey! that’s cool and then drive off for some lunch. This is not how it goes down people. There are ALOT of other folk that plan on seeing it too (they get over 1 million people a year) so expect queues and hustle and bustle. If you are planning on doing it, clear the day… or at least clear half the day!

For us, it was only a 1 and a half hour drive out of the city before we were there soaking up the vast, green landscape and fresh country air. We have a little hire car so we were lucky enough to drive but I did notice a bunch of buses there so if you don’t have a car, google the bus tour option! Tickets cost £16.50 which includes entry to a small exhibition located right next to the ticket desk. Here you can learn a little bit about who, what and why the stones are there and look at some old bones and relics of that era before you go off to see the stones and their surroundings.

With shitty English coffee in hand (they try, they really do, bless ’em) we ventured into the exhibition. This turned out to be a great decision as for the first time ever I learnt a little bit about Stonehenge! I learnt who made it, why they think it was created and yadda, yadda which gave me a better appreciation for the thing when I did actually get to see it in the flesh (or stone). If I hadn’t of gone into the exhibition I would have had no clue WTF I was looking at (Don’t judge me, judge my school! They never taught me anything about it!!). We then went and looked outside at some little huts they had recreated to mimic the ones the people who created Stonehenge, used to live in. Boy they must have been little fella’s because I fit in there perfectly and I’m only 160cm! Super spacious inside and the bed made out of sticks looked enviably comfortable.. But really, all jokes aside it was very interesting to see how the rich really lived in the 1900’s. Ha Ha ok, you got me again. It was interesting.

Steve + hut

Me + hut

Something old mate at the ticket desk forgot to mention was that it’s a rather epic trek to get to the henge. The henge? The stones? The stones. The options are; waiting in a massively long queue to catch a bus or walking. So, because the weather was so dang good Steve and I decided to go head first into the unknown and walk there. Turns out its only about a 20-30 minute walk and the bonus of walking is that along the way you can check out some cool mounds/man-made hills that they created because………. aaaah I can’t remember. It was all speculation anyway whatever it was! Once we finally made it to Stonehenge I was bloody excited, the walk really ramps up the anticipation and crikey does she deliver! It was so ominous but beautiful and the way they have set up a little path to walk around it really allows you to soak it in from every angle. You aren’t allowed to go right up to the structure because… again, I can’t remember. I think it has something to do with the ground being unstable but don’t quote me on that. We took too many selfies (The Stonehenge really knows how to work a camera!), laid in the grass for a bit and then decided to head home. Perfect Sunday Funday 🙂

Ahh the wilderness..

Spirits were high

Lone Stone was all alone.

Us + Stonehenge

Here are a few piccies that I took with the help of my trusty selfie stick. Yes, I used to be a person who would take the piss out of people with selfie sticks and now I am a proud owner of one. They really are a genius creation, both me and Stonehenge were definitely grateful for it 🙂

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Rachelle is a 27 year old Australian Professional Ballroom Champion living in Sydney, NSW. Travelling the world she is constantly inspired by whatever surrounds her and that is reflected in Pink Suede. Have a look around and enjoy!